Malfunction forces AirAsia X to abort flight, return to KL

Flight D7172 departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.43pm, shortly before the Airbus A330-343 aircraft started circling the airspace above the Straits of Malacca for hours to burn off fuel. The plane landed safely at KLIA at 5.37pm.

A source said the aircraft’s pilots made a request to return to base, stating technical difficulty as the reason. The turn back was not declared as an emergency.

AFP reported that the pilots decided to make the turn back after one of the aircraft’s auto-thrust “was not functioning properly”.